I believe that it means as long as we strive to live right, do our best to follow Him, we will flourish…not necessarily flourish like being “successful and rich”, but flourish in our love, attitudes, giving, joy, contentment…

I want this blog to be part family, part crafty, part foody, and all about serving Jesus through our experiences.

So,

How does one go about writing an “about” page about themselves without sounding ridiculously self-righteous? I think it is just as weird as writing a resume! And not only do I not want to sound like I’m “all that” but I don’t want this to be something that is constantly outdated, I don’t want to have to keep reworking it.

So, I think I’ll be a specific as I can while being generic!

First of all, I love my Lord Jesus Christ with all that I am. Now, that does NOT mean that I’m perfect and never mess up or that I have it all together all the time. Heck, I RARELY have anything together. But I do love Jesus. I want to be like Him in my speech, my actions, my thoughts.

I have been married to a wonderful hubby for more than 23 years now. We’ve been through a lot of crud together, but the key word there is “together” and we still love each other! He is an excellent provider for our family and he truly understands the value of that provision and takes that responsibility seriously. He loves our children and enjoys spending time with his family on the farm. He’s a country boy and we get along great even though I’m a “city girl”…after all, I did grow up in town right next to the only 4-way stop! heehee!

I have three children.

My oldest is a United States Marine. He came into our lives during a time when we really had to trust the Lord to provide for him and us. He is the son of my heart. I’m extremely proud of him and the man he is becoming. I’m proud of him for following his dreams of becoming a Marine. He has blessed me and the rest of our family more than he will ever know. He recently married a great girl and they were stationed at Camp Pendleton, California for a couple years, but last summer they were moved to Okinawa, Japan. And they had a precious baby boy in January…my first grandbaby. It’s super tough not being close to them, but knowing they’re doing what they feel is the right thing for them makes it a bit easier.

Our next oldest is our beautiful daughter. Her name alone describes her. She is the light of my life. I’m so thankful every day that she loves Jesus and wants to serve Him. Jesus put a song in her heart and she is a true worshiper of Him. She’s not perfect and she’s not really even the “typical” teenager. She kind of has an “old soul”. She loves to read and is a very good student. She is a student at Indiana Wesleyan University and recently switched her major from Christian Ministries to Psychology, she has a heart to serve Jesus by serving others.

Our youngest brings me more joy than I ever thought one little person could bring. He makes me smile every single day. He’s a wonderful kid with a soft heart. He’s tender, compassionate (and sometimes a little ornery), but always, always, always knows how to brighten my day. He has truly completed our family and I cannot even begin to imagine how our lives would look without him. He tends to struggle in school a bit, but has improved a lot over the past couple of years. He has been in the marching band the past couple of years, and taking drum lessons and is enjoying finding his talent. He also wrestles. This is his third season wrestling and he went 18-9 in the season this year. He’s gotten pretty good at it and enjoys it. I, on the other hand, am not enjoying it at all. I get so nervous watching. I feel faint when it’s his turn on the mat. But I love him and am trying to learn more about the sport and support him and cheer him on!

I had a part-time job at our church for more than 15 years working for and with our Student Ministries Pastors. I went back to college and graduated with a business degree, then kind of floundered in the “job” part of my life. Things didn’t work out the way I had planned and I ended up choosing to leave that job, then I worked at a local coffee shop, then did some insurance billing, then worked at the school my kids go to, then made another job move to the one I have now. In the space of less than an year and a half I had 5 different jobs. I didn’t enjoy the changing, changing, changing…(obviously, being at the same job for more than 15 years, I don’t like change…) I’m now the Ministry Assistant/Media Coordinator at a church…not the church I attend. Which is a little weird for me at times, but it’s been a great experience and I really love the job and my co-workers. It’s a job almost exactly like the one I had at my own church, so it has been a fairly easy transition. Plus, it’s stretching me and getting me outside my comfort zone a bit with designing a website and other things…

I grew up about 3 miles away from where we live today. I love the little town I grew up in. My parents still live in the same place that I grew up in. My younger brother and his family are missionaries in Vanuatu in the South Pacific and my sister and her family made the move back to the good ol’ US of A from serving on the foreign mission field in South Africa, Costa Rica and Panama. She recently divorced her hubby and she lives on the other side of town from us. Her “ex” hubby lives with their awesome girls about 5 miles away from…which is WAAAYYYYY closer than South Africa. 😉

A few years ago, we purchased our “forever home” and have been slowly making it ours. Part of the purpose of this blog is to journal our story as a family and let loved ones who live far away know what’s going on with us and in our home.

If you have any questions or want to know more of our story, just let me know.